Umbra Sumus
The BBC have reported on dastardly ‘dirty tactics’ by London’s much loved and universally admired traffic wardens – I of course find it hard to believe that this could possibly be true of such a fine body of professionals – a bastion of fair play and decency…
As an increasingly nervous flyer, imagine my delight when I was commissioned last year to work as the still photographer for National Geographic TV’s film about the miraculous emergency landing on the Hudson river by US Airways Flight 1549…
I used to work a great deal for Channel 4 as a stills photographer in the ‘Nineties and early 2000s and there is a specific skill set that you need. You have to be quiet, you have to be quick and on this occasion, you had to be fine with paddling around inside (and outside) a plane submerged in a 3.5 million litre water tank in the middle of a field in the English countryside.
The truth is, on a set like this, you are suddenly the least important figure but you have to make sure that you shout loud enough to get the time and space for what your client needs. In that regard, Simon George the director was utterly charming and was generous with both time and crew. It also isn’t really about pictures that one personally likes because you are trying to make engaging images that will inform the viewer but here are a couple that I liked…
Special thanks to picture editor Nicole Cappello for being so lovely on the assignment organisation.
There are more images here but I leave you with an image far scarier than any plane crash…
I’m delighted that one of my images is featured in a new travel magazine called Renegade. It’s small, beautiful and full of interesting stuff. Here’s my double page – an image The Tree of Life in Iraq.
